Apple & EMI to sell DRM-free music

I’m a little late covering this story, but a couple of weeks ago Apple and EMI Music announced a plan to begin selling music free of Digital Rights Management in the iTunes Music Store. This is a huge step forward for online music distribution, and we can only hope it’s the beginning of a paramount shift in the music industry.

Inherently, the technology behind DRM is not evil. The ability to restrict the usage of audio or video files within certain parameters, despite what most internet fanboys will tell you, does in fact have legitimate uses. Most of these uses revolve around the distribution of free content. The problem arises when you, as a consumer, purchase the media with your hard earned money. Until now, the five major record labels in North America refused to sell digital music without a method of controlling how it’s used.

Examples of the restrictions include not being able to play your purchased music on certain portable music players, or limiting the number of times you can burn the music to CD. The issue consumers have with this, is that they paid for the music and are therefor supposed to own in. In all other cases, when you own something you are free to do as you please with that product. When I bought my car, Toyota didn’t dictate how many times I can fill it with gas, or what roads I can drive on.

The point is, it seems like the dinosaurs that run the music industry are finally starting to join the 21st century. Until now, they have been fighting the digital age with all their power, and still losing the battle. The world is changing and this announcement is a huge step forward. Let’s hope the rest of the industry follows suit.